View from the Bernina Express

2012

This is the colour code of every single pixel in a digital image I shot of the surrounding mountains while being a passenger on the Bernina Express in the Swiss Alps. 10 A3 sheets.

The Bernina Express is a World Heritage Site and is famous for the stunning views and dramatic scenery, which can be experienced and photographed, by its passengers true large panoramic windows.

The idea is to subvert the beautiful image by turning it into a sequence of numbers and letters or even to subvert the entire idea of a photograph. The sheets suggest that an image, which they are based upon, exists but they are completely impossible to understand visually. The image only exists as an idea. The anonymous sequence stands in complete contrast to the original picturesque picture but is the only reference to it. The work becomes almost pure concept with almost no visual qualities just the conceptual idea of the existence of a beautiful image.

Theoretically it would be possible to manually type in every single colour code printed on the sheets in Photoshop. On at a time from left to right on the canvas, recreating the original image.